The tollway is warning, however, that Tollway Trip Tweets are an informational service that should be used by customers only when they are not operating a vehicle, and that it is against the law to email, text or tweet while driving in Illinois.

"The Illinois Tollway is committed to providing valuable information to meet our customers' needs, especially during one of the busiest travel holidays of the year," tollway Executive Director Kristi Lafleur said in a press release.

According to the tollway, tweets will include real-time information about the type of incident, the location by nearest crossroad and milepost and the subsequent impact on traffic, such as lane closures.

As many as three messages per incident will be sent via Twitter, with the final being the conclusion and clearing of the incident from the roadway.

Users can follow all four tollways or just the ones that interest them.

According to the tollway, Tollway Trip Tweets are issued automatically from the agency's Traffic Operations Center, which is staffed daily from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The system uses more than 200 closed-circuit television cameras and 127 solar-powered remote traffic monitoring sensors to provide information about congestion, incidents, road work and lane closures.

Real-time dispatch messages are currently emailed to tollway employees, traffic operations and maintenance personnel, emergency and enforcement agencies and the news media. Those messages will be communicated via Twitter directly to tollway users, the agency said.

The tollway said the number of Twitter followers jumped from 140 to 750 in seven hours Tuesday after the Tribune posted a story about the Trip Tweets.